[Anesthesia for the low body weight neonates].

58 newborns weighting under 2500 gm were collected, who received surgery in the past five years (1985-1989) in Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taipei, and followed up the survivors until April 1990. We classified these 58 cases by physical status that 31 cases (53%) were in ASA II, 26 (45%) in ASA III, 1 (2%) in ASA IV; by body weight that 9 cases (16%) were under 1500 gm, 17 (29%) between 1501 and 2000 gm, 32 (55%) over 2000 gm; by gestational age that 26 cases (45%) were in term pregnancy, 14 (24%) in borderline prematurity, 16 (28%) in moderate prematurity, 2 (3%) in extreme prematurity. All these 58 cases were under endotracheal general anesthesia, the majority of surgery (32 cases) were abdominal procedures. They were all sent to pediatric intensive care unit after operation. The mortality rate was 42% (25 cases), 4 cases of those were dead within the post-operative 24 hours. In this study, the change of temperature during operative procedures was significantly correlative to the neonatal mortality (p less than 0.005).